Watch & Listen

David Dondero

David Dondero is an American songwriter, guitarist, former lead singer of the band Sunbrain. In 2006, NPR's All Songs Considered named David one of the "best living songwriters" alongside Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Tom Waits.

Dondero started his musical career on drums at the age of 10, due in part to the fact that he "was always drumming on stuff with my hands". Dondero released four records with the Clemson, SC-based punk/hardcore band Sunbrain (three on Grass Records and one on Ghostmeat Records), before breaking up in 1995. The following year, Dondero joined This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb for nearly two years as their drummer. He left in 1998 to focus on his solo material. He has since released seven solo albums - two with Ghostmeat Records, three with Future Farmer Records and the most recent two with Team Love Records. His eighth album, titled # Zero with a Bullet, was released on August 3, 2010. Dondero has toured with such acts as Crooked Fingers, Jolie Holland, Against Me!, The Mountain Goats, David Bazan, Preston School of Industry, Bright Eyes, Tilly and the Wall, Erik Petersen of Mischief Brew, Spoon, and Willy Mason. Dondero currently resides in Austin, TX.

Erika Ryann

With the snow continuing in a slow drift around the windows of my toasty apartment, covering the two giant pine trees in front of my living room windows, I think I'm reminded of my home in the forest. I don't miss driving half an hour just to get food, but I do miss dark, still nights with snow so thick on the ground, trees and homes it seems to silence everything. Outside and alone, there is a sense of something living in the dark space between the knotted trees. When I let my mind wander there, I find memories peering out back at me from behind the twigs. Old voices, faces, moments that pass behind my eyes like flitting silent films.
And a heavy sense of the unknown. There is what I see and there is what actually exists which sometimes terrifies me more.
But I am still a part of it. I can't let it know I feel threatened by it, and so I venture into the knotted silence with my head held high.
cheers,
Erika Ryann

the Bell Hours

A cornerstone of The Bell Hours’ music is that it impresses so much upon you with so little. If you walked into their show, you wouldn’t be able to pick them out of the crowd, not until an awkward person shuffles onto stage from somewhere. In a way their normality shows something simple and pure and creates the flare in the music. The complexities come later when the music has set in, an odd but pleasing arrangement of dynamic Indie, Folk, and Rock music, with a unique voice. If their music seems different and stands out from other music in the Denver music scene, it’s because it’s following songwriter Klaus Larson’s style and voice has created something that’s just not like the usual music in the scene. Inspiration comes from everyday life and the simple joy or pain of the moments where ideas begin… uncomplicated. Their set and new self-titled album emphasize the dynamics of these moments that we all experience in an array of tunes that are fast and slow, loud and soft, joyful and moody, melodic and monotone, and even sometimes a few of these at once.